Hooked On LinkedIn

I could and probably should write a clever blog post about Donald Sterling and the ghastly and, quite frankly, weird interview his “assistant” conducted with Barbara Walters, but I’d rather write about LinkedIn because 2014 is my year to master technology. I don’t understand Mr. Sterling’s proclivities, his racism and his bizarre lifestyle. I think I understand LinkedIn even less. What I do understand is good customer service which can translate to good public relations and that’s what I experienced recently with LinkedIn.

Like other digital media platforms, it’s complicated to find a human with whom to speak when there is an issue, a frustration or a need to depart from the service, which is where I was last week. I realized that I had accidentally over-extended my level of service with LinkedIn….I just don’t need their highest and costliest level but somehow I signed up for it.

So I searched the site and found that “contact us” section on their menu, sent a note and briefly explained my desire to change my level of service and why. I didn’t expect to hear back. The automatic response, which I naturally put no stock in, said someone would contact me in 24 hours. Then I forgot about the whole thing and went back to trying to figure out how to save a photo on my desktop. This is, after all, my year of mastering technology.

The next day in my e-mailbox was a lovely refund for my service with LinkedIn, no questions asked, no effort to keep me and no fuss or muss. They simply let me go back to my original status.

I wasn’t a fan of LinkedIn before. It’s just been one of those social media options that isn’t optional because allegedly EVERYONE is on it. But I am a fan now.

I remain baffled about how to halt those incessant and fraudulent endorsements that continue to populate (that’s me using techno-speak) by people who rave about how helpful I have been for them even though we've never met.

But I look at LinkedIn so very differently now. You might say I’m hookedin.